Man sentenced to life in killing of NJ Councilwoman Eunice Dwumfour – NBC New York

The person was sentenced to life in jail for the homicide of a New Jersey metropolis councilwoman proper exterior her residence as her household waited inside.

Rashid Bynum was convicted in June of first-degree homicide and second-degree weapon possession within the 2023 capturing demise of Sayreville Councilwoman Eunice Dwumfour, whose household sat weeping in courtroom on Monday. Her sister urged the choose the impose the utmost sentence on the person who rigorously deliberate the homicide of her sister.

“You drove how lengthy to kill a girl? What sort of a person are you?” requested Priscilla Dwumfour.

A Middlesex county assistant prosecutor learn a letter from the sufferer’s teenage daughter, who was simply 11 when her mom was killed.

“I nonetheless haven’t recovered from what occurred to her, so why did you kill my mother?” the letter learn.

Bynum didn’t converse in courtroom, and has by no means taken accountability for the homicide. He obtained a life sentence, with the choose saying the killing “was dedicated in an particularly merciless and wicked method,” and cited Bynum’s lack of regret. He will not be eligible for parole till 2088, when he’s 94 years outdated.

Dwumfour, who served on the Sayreville Borough Council for a few yr, was gunned down on Feb. 1, 2023. Bynum wasn’t tracked down till Might 30, almost 4 months after the lethal capturing.

Investigators mentioned Bynum had identified Dwumfour, however it was not clear how properly the 2 knew one another. The one connection between the 2 police have is that the suspect was linked to the church Dwumfour attended.

Investigators traced Bynum’s travels from his cellphone and automobile location information from the night time of the killing, Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone mentioned after the arrest was made, citing surveillance video and E-ZPass information. He additionally matched the outline of the gunman given by neighbors in Sayreville.

Bynum, 29, was taken into custody exterior a residence in Chesapeake, Virginia, with out incident.

In line with a household legal professional, neither Dwumfour’s dad and mom nor sibling acknowledged the title or image of the suspect. Dwumfour, who grew up in Newark, did dwell in Virginia at one level, and household lawyer John Wisniewski mentioned Bynum had beforehand lived in Sayreville. However past that, he didn’t know the character of their relationship and the prosecutor declined to debate a doable motive.

Dwumfour was a pastor in a prosperity gospel church, Champions Royal Meeting, that’s based mostly in Nigeria, and she or he obtained married there in Nov. 2022 to a fellow pastor from Abuja. She was additionally an officer of a associated entity, the Fireplace Congress Fellowship, that has a department in Virginia. Bynum was listed in her cellphone contacts below that group’s acronym.

“A search of the sufferer’s telephone revealed Bynum as a contact with the acronym FCF,” mentioned Ciccone.

Courtroom information and tax filings counsel that church funds within the U.S. have been tight. Dwumfour had been named in a sequence of landlord-tenant disputes in Newark relationship from 2017 to 2020 involving the fellowship, which had seen its revenue drop from about $250,000 in 2017 to only $350 in 2020.

Via the months earlier than the arrest was made, the councilwomen’s members of the family expressed their frustration. Dwumfour’s daughter described what she heard simply exterior her window the night time of the capturing, because the household was ready inside for the mom to complete parking her automobile.

“We’re ready for my mother to search for a parking area, after which she was taking loads of time so we began calling her again and again, however it would not decide up. After which we heard gunshots and we began calling the police,” Nicole Teliano beforehand informed the AP.

Dwumfour, a Republican, was elected to her first three-year time period in 2021, when she ousted a Democratic incumbent. Colleagues recalled her as a soft-spoken religious Christian who may keep her composure in contentious conditions.

A heart-felt plea for justice from the household of the councilwoman killed in New Jersey. Brian Thompson reviews.

Related Press reporter Maryclaire Dale contributed to this report.